eBay

afvn72 · ‎11-16-2020

The internet radio "Gateway" company, Reciva, will shut down on Jan 31, 2021. Any radio using Reciva, including all Grace Digital radios manufactured before 2017, will be deactivated. Radios from many other companies will be deactivated as well. Many such radios are now listed on Ebay and no one is aware of this time bomb. Deactivated, in this case, means dead, doorstop, paper weight, will never work again. I hope Ebay will note this situation and perhaps put a warning on internet radio listings for buyers to be sure of what they are getting.

byrd69er · ‎11-16-2020

It would not be any responsibility of eBay to provide any notification of the future demise of a company's product or service.

luckythewinner · ‎11-16-2020

@afvn72 wrote:
The internet radio "Gateway" company, Reciva, will shut down on Jan 31, 2021. Any radio using Reciva, including all Grace Digital radios manufactured before 2017, will be deactivated. Radios from many other companies will be deactivated as well. Many such radios are now listed on Ebay and no one is aware of this time bomb. Deactivated, in this case, means dead, doorstop, paper weight, will never work again. I hope Ebay will note this situation and perhaps put a warning on internet radio listings for buyers to be sure of what they are getting.

Do you think there are many people looking to buy a Reciva radio without first checking the Reciva website to find out how they work, and noticing the big banner that says they will shut down soon?

I think your speculation that "no one is aware of this" may not be entirely accurate.

voodooelectronics · ‎01-03-2021

Actually it would. eBay would (will) be complicit in ripping people off by selling a product known to be nearing obsolescence. I suspect a lot (but not all) of these sellers aren't even aware of the Reciva withdrawal. I only heard about it today and I use Reciva --- through an existing internet radio which will suddenly go obsolete --- literally every day. Matter of fact if I didn't happen to be listening to a radio program about radio today --- via that same radio --- I would never have heard about this at all. Neither Reciva nor the radio manufacturer sent out notices about this.

So yes, absolutely this is an issue.

alcoforever · ‎01-03-2021

Ebay is not your mommy.

voodooelectronics · ‎01-03-2021

It's entirely accurate, because no one goes out looking "to buy a Reciva radio". "Reciva" is not a radio brand name; it's an arcane tool that radios USE. Until this was brought to my attention today I couldn't have told you what "Reciva" even was, but I could tell you all the stations I can listen to via the radio.

NOBODY goes and "checks the Reciva website to find out how they work". You buy the radio, you read the manual and then you're told about Reciva.

a_c_green · ‎01-04-2021

@voodooelectronics wrote:
Actually it would. eBay would (will) be complicit in ripping people off by selling a product known to be nearing obsolescence. I suspect a lot (but not all) of these sellers aren't even aware of the Reciva withdrawal.

I'm not sure who would be ripped off by eBay here. Buyers of the soon-to-be-obsolete devices would have time to return for a refund if desired.

ra_201044 · ‎01-04-2021

@voodooelectronics wrote:
Actually it would. eBay would (will) be complicit in ripping people off by selling a product known to be nearing obsolescence. I suspect a lot (but not all) of these sellers aren't even aware of the Reciva withdrawal. I only heard about it today and I use Reciva --- through an existing internet radio which will suddenly go obsolete --- literally every day. Matter of fact if I didn't happen to be listening to a radio program about radio today --- via that same radio --- I would never have heard about this at all. Neither Reciva nor the radio manufacturer sent out notices about this.

So yes, absolutely this is an issue.

Why? Maybe those who buy them know they might be able to switch to another internet radio provider? Or modify them and resell them?

People are selling off their old, doorstop IRIS home security systems, and those have been dead for a few years now. Maybe someone is figuring out how to use them in another fashion?

And people are selling laptops with Windows XP on them(and even Windows 95) - no support for that anymore. That falls under obsolescence also. But people want them. How about old Mac's or TI-99's or Radio Shack computers?

ezezao-0 · ‎01-04-2021

That is the problem with proprietary hardware.

The electronics inside may be worth something to someone.

Perhaps there is trace gold used to manufacture, as of the time of this post that would be worth $2000 an ounce.

Whether recovering the gold from the electronics (if there is even any) is worth the effort, that I could not tell you.

(a little stampede just ensued)

ezezao-0 · ‎01-04-2021

Yeah ever heard of the King of Obsolete?

Everything he owns is well past obsolete.

Google it, man lives in northern Manitoba.

byrd69er · ‎01-04-2021

....and eBay should warn everyone who buys vacuum tubes that they are becoming obsolete too.....well, they were.

Superior technologies remain.

whatcomesfirst · ‎01-04-2021

As is all too often on these boards, matters turn into antagonistic eBay defense-fests. The OP was saying that these radios WILL be useless for their intended purpose. Had he not mentioned eBay, I'm sure there would only been a couple responses to his warning. Nothing to do with tubes, XP computers that some still have a use for. I too use one of these affected radios and didn't know about this shutdown either until recently. Not a big deal for me, but it will be for sellers that aren't aware and will be stuck w/ returns from equally unaware buyers. But the "Hey, I do alright here, let others eat cake" sentiment is unfortunate.

gpsworld1 · ‎01-05-2021

"eBay should warn everyone who buys vacuum tubes that they are becoming obsolete too....."

There are actually still demands for vacuum tubes - for old electronics repair/refurbishment and audiophile/musicians wanting a cleaner sound.

Another example of obsolescence <> useless.

luckythewinner · ‎01-05-2021

@whatcomesfirst wrote:
As is all too often on these boards, matters turn into antagonistic eBay defense-fests. The OP was saying that these radios WILL be useless for their intended purpose. Had he not mentioned eBay, I'm sure there would only been a couple responses to his warning.

You are correct.

If the OP had not suggested that eBay should warn buyers about internet radios, no one would have responded by suggesting that warning buyers about internet radios is not eBay's job.

I suspect the response would have been pretty much the same if the OP had mentioned "flea market sellers" instead of "eBay".